Active hunters, 2007/2008

In total 141 000 reported to have hunted during last hunting season. Hunting on small game is most common. 64 per cent of the hunters participated in this kind of hunting. 61 per cent reported that they hunted cervids during the hunting year 2007/2008.

Cervid hunting

In Norway, hunting on cervids includes moose, roe deer, red deer and wild reindeer. Among the cervids, moose is the most hunted game. A total of 57 200 hunters have hunted moose in the autumn of 2007.

Since the beginning of the 1990’s the felling quota and the number of felled red deer has strongly increased. The number of red deer hunters has also increased during this period. A total of 34 800 hunters have reported that they hunted red deer in the autumn of 2007, which is 1 200 or 3.6 per cent more than the previous autumn. Although the felling quotas on moose and red deer now are at the same level, considerably fewer hunters hunted red deer than moose. Still, the second most frequent type of cervid hunting is roe deer hunting, which engaged 38 100 hunters. In total, 15 000 of the roe deer hunters had yield from the hunting. Wild reindeer is the species that fewest persons are allowed to hunt because the hunting rights are individual. A total of 7 900 hunters hunted wild reindeer in the autumn of 2007.

Most hunters in rural areas

At country level, 7 per cent of the male population went out shooting during the hunting year 2007/08. The share of hunters is higher in rural areas than in urban areas and cities. In some rural municipalities nearly 50 per cent of the male population older than 16 years went out shooting. Among the male population in Oslo and Bergen only 3 per cent has hunted.

More female hunters

The share of female hunters still increase and 6.5 per cent of the hunters who paid the hunting licence fee for the hunting year 2007/2008 were women. A total of 7 500 women reported that they went out shooting last hunting year. This is 5.5 per cent of all persons that hunted.

More hunters report via the Internet

The part of the hunters that use the Internet when they report hunting activity has increased from 10 per cent in 2002 to 61 per cent in 2008. Young hunters more frequently use the Internet than old hunters. 78 per cent of the hunters between 20 and 29 years reported via the Internet. Nevertheless, as much as 54 per cent of the hunters between 50 and 59 years have used the Internet in 2008. 69 per cent of the hunters living in Oslo county used the Internet , compared with only 51 per cent of the hunters living in Telemark county.

Tables:

• Table 1 Hunting reports, by the hunters' county of residence. 2001/02-2007/08
• Table 2 Number of hunters, by type of hunting and county of residence. 2001/02-2007/08
• Table 3 Number of hunters, by type of hunting, sex and age. 2007/08